World Superbikes: Rea second as Bautista continues winning start to season

Alvaro Bautista finished ahead of Jonathan Rea for the seventh time this season

Jonathan Rea was second in the opening World Superbike race of the weekend at Aragon as Alvaro Bautista made it seven wins from seven starts this season.

Spaniard Bautista led from start to finish with Northern Irishman Rea seeing off the challenge of Bautista's Aruba Ducati team-mate Chaz Davies.

Bautista extends his lead over Rea in the series standings to 31 points.

Rea, 32, has been runner-up in every race so far this season, with a 10-lap race and race two to come on Sunday.

The four-time world champion started Saturday's race from 10th position on the grid, a second adrift of pole-position man Bautista, after he and his Kawasaki team made a misjudgement over the number of remaining laps in qualifying.

Despite being clipped by German rider Markus Reiterberger off the start-line, Rea quickly progressed through the field and got the better of Welshman Davies after a race-long battle.

English riders Alex Lowes and Tom Sykes were in close contention with the pair in front of them and ultimately picked up fourth and fifth places, with Dutchman Michael van der Mark sixth.

Bautista continues victory streak

Bautista enjoyed an advantage of 15.17 seconds by the end of the race to become the first Spanish rider to win in Spain since Ruben Xaus 12 years ago and continue his domination of the early part of the season.

The former MotoGP rider had won all four main races in the opening two rounds at Phillip Island and Buriram in Thailand, as well as winning the newly-introduced shorter Superpole sprint races at both rounds.

Rea, who won 11 races in a row on his way to a fourth consecutive title at the end of last season, had taken a win and a second place in both of the last two years at Aragon.

"I managed to reach fifth by the end of turn two on the first lap and settled into a nice rhythm with Chaz and the Yamaha boys," commented Rea.

"I made some ground on the early parts of the laps but in the last sectors the other bikes had the legs on us.

"I tried to be perfect on the last lap and go into the long straight with a bit of a gap and I managed that."

Eugene Laverty was involved in the tussle for a top-six spot but had to settle for picking up a solitary point after making contact with another rider on the last lap and sliding into the gravel.